UC Davis top grad aims to revolutionize aging, befriends 95-year-old veteran through service
Being honored with the University Medal as the top graduating senior of 2025 is Avantika Gokulnatha of San Jose.
Gokulnatha studied biological sciences and researched aging at UC Davis. Now, she is bound for medical school with dreams of becoming a physician scientist to help find new ways to prevent age decline and allow older adults be independent for as long as possible.
Excelling in both academic studies and service, Gokulnatha throughout her schooling has served in hospice centers, senior living facilities, and has even helped provide free medical care to uninsured and marginalized communities.
She also led a student organization called Breaking Barriers for two years. The group teaches seniors regionwide to use newer technology like computers and smartphones.
Gokulnatha says it's a passion project inspired by her late grandfather back home in India.
"I said, if I can't do it for my own grandparents, maybe I can help someone else's grandparents whose family lives far away," Gokulnatha. "You know, making older people feel remembered, part of the community. Making sure they are involved and don't feel so forgotten."
The small act of kindness has made a big impact for 95-year-old Jack McGruder, a resident at the Village at Rancho Solano senior living facility in Fairfield.
Breaking Barriers would stop by to visit McGruder and the other seniors at the center about once a month to work on technology skills. Gokulnatha over the years formed an incredibly strong bong with McGruder who she now lovingly calls "Uncle Jack."
"They could be out partying, having a good time. But they're here saying, 'hit this button, hit that button,'" said McGruder. "It makes a big difference because a lot of us old geezers don't know how to do that. That makes your life very isolated."
The duo formed an unbreakable bond tableside with technology.
As Gokulnatha studies aging, she is on a mission to innovate the way we grow old in her career to come.
"I'm inspired by research going on that's looking at turning back the biological clock. Not necessarily lengthening our life span, but making the experience of aging a little easier," said Gokulnatha.
She also taught McGruder how to watch the commencement live stream online so he can see her cross the stage on Saturday.
"It's always rewarding to come out here, hear stories about a world where I didn't live," said Gokulnatha. "How vast his life experience has been and how many changes in the world he has lived through."
Born in 1929, McGruder has seen more than most. He served in the United States Army during the occupation of Germany just after WWII ended.
"I learned how to speak German and I was a military policeman in a very elite military organization. We were good guys, but we were tough," said McGruder.
To any youngster who will listen, Jack offers simple advice.
"Try to love and help all the people you interact with as best you can. I want them all to look for the positive things in life and have fun," McGruder said.
Gokulnatha learned that sometimes the lessons that last a lifetime are taught outside the classroom.
Up next, she is taking a gap year while applying for medical school. Gokulnatha is a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award recipient which will support her studies at the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Officials discover the first human infected with West Nile Virus in Stanislaus County
( — A resident in Stanislaus County has been confirmed to be infected with West Nile Virus, according to Stanislaus County Public Health. SCPH stated that this is the first human case of WNV this year. The virus is mainly transmitted to humans through the bites of mosquitoes that have been infected. Public health, along with local mosquito abatement districts, had reported a first pool of mosquitoes that tested positive for the virus last week, and more pools of infected mosquitoes have been discovered ever since, officials said. The person who was infected with WNV started to develop a neurological illness, known as neuroinvasive WNV, which is a type of illness that affects the nervous system, SCPH said. Some people could also experience mild symptoms like fever, headache, and tiredness. Oroville campground 2021 murder remains unsolved with $50,000 reward SCPH stated that in rare cases, WNV can cause serious illness that affects the brain and spinal cord, such as encephalitis or meningitis. These severe conditions can result in long-term problems or even death. Certain groups of people that including older people, those with diabetes, and people with weak immune systems, have a higher chance of getting very sick from the virus, according to SCPH. 'As we celebrate Independence Day, we urge the community to take steps to avoid exposure tomosquito bites. One in four mosquito samples collected from different parts of the City of Modesto over the past week and a half have tested positive for West Nile Virus,' says Dr. Wakoli Wekesa of East Side Mosquito Abatement District. 'We are doing everything we can on the ground to reduce the mosquito population in affected areas.' Dr. Thea Papasozomenos, SCPH officer, stressed the importance of community and awareness engagement by stating: 'The discovery of mosquito pools positive for West Nile Virus by both local Mosquito Abatement Districts is a reminder that we need to take proactive measures to prevent mosquito breeding in our community. We urge residents to dump and drain any standing water around their homes and report neglected swimming pools, as these can serve as mosquito breeding sites. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for WNV, so it is very important that people protect themselves and their families from mosquito bites.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Fox News
5 hours ago
- Fox News
‘Modern Family' star Julie Bowen thought she was ‘gonna die' after learning she needed a pacemaker at age 29
At age 29, Julie Bowen got a pacemaker. The "Modern Family" alum made the revelation to host Michael Rosenbaum during a recent appearance on his podcast, "Inside of You." The 55-year-old shared that she struggles with sick sinus syndrome, a heart rhythm disorder that, according to Mayo Clinic, causes "slow heartbeats, pauses or irregular heartbeats." "I have a low resting heart rate," the actress said on the podcast, noting her pacemaker is "set so that it can't go below 45." Bowen told Rosenbaum that, before receiving a pacemaker, her resting heart rate was in the 30s. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the average heart rate for adult women is 78 to 82 beats per minute. The "normal" range is between 60 to 100 beats per minute, it noted. According to the outlet, multiple factors, such as hormones, exercise and other lifestyle choices can affect your heart rate. "I was a runner all throughout high school," Bowen explained. "And then I was really a competitive runner. And I always had a really low heart rate. And my sister was in med school. So, I guess I had just gotten out of college maybe. … At that time in her life, I guess she always carried around a stethoscope. "We were on vacation, and she was like, 'I want to listen to this,'" Bowen recalled. "And she listened to my heart, and she was like, 'That is not what they've been telling you. And it's not runner's heart or whatever. … You need to go to a cardiologist immediately.'" Bowen's sister, Annie Luetkemeyer, had just graduated from medical school. She refused to give up on the issue. Still, Bowen would insist to her concerned sibling that "I'm fine." A month later, Bowen shot the pilot episode of the TV series "Ed," which premiered in 2000. "I shot the pilot of 'Ed' and immediately had to go get a pacemaker afterwards," said Bowen. "I was like, 'Oh my God. My life is over. This is so weird. I'm gonna die.' I don't know what I thought it was because I was 29." "You're lucky you didn't die before that," said Rosenbaum. "They said I wouldn't probably die of it, but I'd start passing out," she explained. "There was a vague feeling … whenever I was relaxed, really relaxed, I'd be, like, watching TV or [a] movie. It felt like I'd been holding my breath for a while, that feeling of, like, lightheadedness. "And they said, 'You're gonna be driving a car, and you're gonna pass out, and you're gonna kill somebody.' And I was like, 'Oh, well, then give me the g-----n pacemaker.'" According to Bowen, surgeons went in through her armpit. Over the years, she has had to replace the batteries about three times. "I forget about it all the time," Bowen said of having a pacemaker.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
How to tell if you have a ‘dopamine deficit' and what you can do to reset
Maybe you'd like to spend time on hobbies or hang out with friends, but nothing feels as exciting and engaging as it used to –– so you just squander another hour on social media. Your problem may have to do with your dopamine levels. In many parts of the world, people are fed media, activities and foods that can cause dopamine to surge and throw the balance off, and that could affect your mental health, according to Dr. Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic and author of 'Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.' Lembke spoke with CNN about what dopamine is, what it does and how you can find better balance. This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. CNN: What is dopamine exactly? Dr. Anna Lembke: Dopamine is a chemical we make in our brain. Specifically, it's a neurotransmitter. Neurotransmitters allow for fine-tuned regulation of electrical circuits. Basically, our brain is a bunch of electrical circuits, a bunch of wires in the form of neurons that conduct electrical signals that allow for information processing — the job of our brains. Dopamine has many functions, but in the last 75 years or so, it's been identified as a key player in pleasure, reward and motivation. It's not the only neurotransmitter involved in that process, but it has become a kind of common currency for neuroscientists to measure the reinforcing potential of different substances and behaviors. CNN: How does dopamine impact our mental health? Lembke: It plays a central role in the phenomenology of addiction. Addiction is a brain disease where there's dysregulation in a specific reward pathway, a specific circuit in the brain, and dopamine plays a critical role in the brain's reward pathway. When we do something that's reinforcing, that releases dopamine in the reward pathway and tells our brain, 'Oh, that's something you need to do more of. That's important for survival.' The highly reinforcing substances and behaviors that we have engineered and have access to now are overwhelming the system. (They) release so much dopamine all at once in the reward pathway that the brain has to adapt or compensate by downregulating dopamine transmission. The result is that, over time, we can enter into a chronic dopamine-deficit state, where we have essentially changed our hedonic or joy set point. Now we need more of our reward — and more potent forms –– not to feel good, but just to stop feeling bad. And when we're not 'using,' we're experiencing the universal symptoms of withdrawal from any addictive substance or behavior like anxiety, irritability, insomnia, dysphoria and craving. CNN: Does this just affect people who have an addiction to drugs or alcohol? Lembke: We're all now kind of on the spectrum of compulsive overconsumption, moving toward addiction, which is resetting our hedonic threshold –– or joy set point. We need more and more of these reinforcers to feel any pleasure at all, and when we're not using, we're dysphoric, we're irritable, we can't sleep. CNN: What kinds of things risk putting us into dopamine deficit? Lembke: A lot of different things release dopamine in the reward pathway, including things that are good for us, like learning or spending time with friends. It's not that dopamine is the villain here, that dopamine release is bad –– not at all. The problem is that we've now engineered old-fashioned drugs to be more potent than ever before, and we've also created drugs that never existed before, like digital media, like 'drugified' foods. We've even taken healthy behaviors like exercise and drugified them by (tracking) ourselves and ranking ourselves and adding in social media and social comparisons. We're now seeing more and more and more people addicted to social media, online pornography, online gambling, video games and all manner of addictive digital media. There's emerging evidence that these digital media activate the same reward pathways as drugs and alcohol and cause the same kinds of dysregulations as we see in other addictions. It's the same thing with sugar. Ultraprocessed foods cause dopamine release, and the reward pathway leads to the same kinds of behaviors as when people get addicted to drugs and alcohol. There's a growing consensus that it's basically the same disease process, just with a different object of desire or reward. CNN: How can we find out if a substance or behavior is problematic? Lembke: When we look at what makes something addictive, there are several factors. One is potency, which refers to how much dopamine is released in the reward pathway and how quickly it's released. But other factors are simple things like access. We know that the easier it is to access a reinforcing substance or behavior, the more likely people are to use it and hence get addicted to it. We now live in this world of very easy, frictionless access to a lot of rewarding substances and behaviors. Digital media in particular is a 24/7 mobile access — anytime, anywhere, to an almost infinite source. The other thing that makes something addictive is the quantity and frequency of exposure. The more dopamine hits the brain gets, the more likely it is to change and adapt in a way that can create a disease of addiction. (Social media algorithms are) actually engineered to overcome tolerance and create novelty, to encourage people to keep searching for the same or similar rewards as what they've already viewed but hopefully a little bit better. The criteria for diagnosing addiction are pretty much the same across different definitions. You're looking for the four C's: out-of-control use, compulsive use, craving and consequences — especially continued use despite consequences — as well as the physiologic criteria that indicate biological dependence. Those would be tolerance, needing more (or more potent forms) over time to get the same effect, and withdrawal when you try to stop using. CNN: What can we do to address dopamine deficit? Lembke: What I recommend is a 30-day abstinence trial, colloquially called a 'dopamine fast,' from the drug of choice. Not from all rewards but just from the problematic substance or behavior to see how difficult it is to stop — and also to see if you feel better after four weeks. Why four weeks? Because that's, on average, the amount of time it takes to reset reward pathways, at least phenomenologically. I always warn people, they're going to feel worse before they feel better. But if they get through the first 10 to 14 days, often they will feel much better. After the abstinence trial, when people want to go back to using, they just need to be very specific about what they're going to use, how much, how often, in what circumstances, how they're going to track it, and what their red flags will be for slipping back into old habits. Then they can reevaluate whether they can really use in moderation. When it comes to food, obviously, people can't abstain, and nor should they try. But they can abstain from sugar. They can abstain from ultraprocessed foods. How do we engage in pleasurable things but stop before we get to dopamine deficit? Lembke: It's not about not having pleasure in life; it is about resetting the balance so that simple pleasures are rewarding again. That is not going to happen if people are constantly indulging in these frictionless, high-potency rewards. I talk a lot about 'self-binding' and making sure we don't constantly surround ourselves with easy access to these high-potency, cheap pleasures so we don't get into that problem in the first place. But it takes intentionality because we live in a world where we're constantly being invited to consume, and we're told that the more we consume, the happier we'll be. So, it does take planning and intentionality to create barriers between ourselves and the many drugs out there. Self-binding can mean physical barriers. If the issue is food, not having ultraprocessed food or sugary food in the house. If it's cannabis, not having pot in the house, not having alcohol. Now, if it's some form of digital media, you can use time as a self-binding strategy: 'I'm only going to use on these days for this amount of time with these people.' Other people are a very important form of self-binding. We tend to do what those around us are doing, so try to hang out with people who are using substances and behaviors in a way that you want to use them. Sign up for CNN's Stress, But Less newsletter. Our six-part mindfulness guide will inform and inspire you to reduce stress while learning how to harness it.
